JACKSON, Andrew, a Representative and a Senator from Tennessee and 7th President of
the United States; born on March 15, 1767; in the Waxhaw Settlement in South
Carolina; attended an old-field school; though just a boy, participated in the
battle of Hanging Rock during the Revolution, captured by the British and
imprisoned; worked for a time in a saddlers shop and afterward taught school;
studied law in Salisbury, N.C.; admitted to the bar in 1787; moved to Jonesboro
(now Tennessee) in 1788 and commenced practice; appointed solicitor of the
western district of North Carolina, comprising what is now the State of
Tennessee, in 1788; held the same position in the territorial government of
Tennessee after 1791; delegate to the convention to frame a constitution for
the new State 1796; upon the admission of Tennessee as a State into the Union
was elected to the Fourth and Fifth Congresses and served from December 5,
1796, until his resignation in September 1797; elected as a Democratic
Republican in September 1797 to the United States Senate for the term that had
commenced March 4, 1797, and served from September 26, 1797, until his
resignation in April 1798; judge of the State supreme court of Tennessee
1798-1804; engaged in planting and in mercantile pursuits; served in the Creek
War of 1813 as commander of Tennessee forces; his victory in the Creek War
brought him a commission as major general in the United States Army in May
1814; led his army to victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans in
January 1815; received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal by resolution of
February 27, 1815; commanded an expedition which captured Florida in 1817;
served as Governor of the new territory in 1821; again elected to the United
States Senate and served from March 4, 1823, to October 14, 1825, when he
resigned; chairman, Committee on Military Affairs (Eighteenth Congress);
unsuccessful candidate for President in 1824; elected as a Democrat as
President of the United States in 1828; reelected in 1832 and served from March
4, 1829, to March 3, 1837; retired to his country home, the Hermitage, near
Nashville, Tenn., where he died June 8, 1845; interment in the garden on his
estate.